Issues

Blasting Apart the Eduprotection Racket

A distinguished professor reveals -- in a chatty, personal web log -- why our colleges of education inculcate ignorance, rather than learning

 

By Steven Miller
BusinessNevada

If you’re an employer here in Nevada, there’s a very good chance that you’ve become thoroughly unimpressed with the graduates coming out of Nevada public schools.

Forty-two percent of Nevada employers rated their recently hired graduates as unsatisfactory overall, according to a recent survey conducted for the Nevada Policy Research Institute. Employers gave especially low ratings to recent graduates’ skills in mathematics, communication and problem solving.

Of course, after decades of spiraling-downward public-school performance scores, all around the nation, this is probably not exactly news to you.

But have you ever wondered exactly why public schooling, despite the humongous sums “invested” into it (doubling, in real dollars, over the last quarter-century), so often only grows worse?

One big part of the problem—and thus a clear area where reform would bring major progress—is the teacher-training system, whether here in Nevada or across the country. Our colleges of education have for decades been gripped by a bizarre ideological paralysis. Within its frozen categories, the ed schools rarely, if ever, actually teach their students how to teach. The regimen that takes its place instead is almost entirely devoted to nonsensical and politically correct pap that subverts genuine educational values.

It is difficult for newcomers to the subject to grasp the scope and virulence of the pathology involved here. In the private sector, such a failure-centric operation would be bankrupt in a few months and replaced by something that works. But, hidden behind academic defenses in depth and political allies that share the same general ideology, the ed schools have for decades been able to conceal their scandalous fecklessness from the broader public—while continuing to suck up taxpayer resources.

Happily, today Dr. Martin Kozloff, Watson Distinguished Professor at the
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, blasted a major breach in this wall.

On his chatty, personal website, www.educationation.org, Kozloff published perhaps the funniest, clearest and most cogent analysis ever seen of this disastrous ed-school phenomenon. At the same time, he thoroughly dismantles the Typhoid Mary at the center of this pandemic, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). It's like a guided tour of the UNLV and UNR funny farms.

Were the State of Nevada to take the lessons of this essay to heart, Silver State public schools could start turning around within a year or two.

Reprinted from http://educationation.org/blog/?p=132:

NCATE: The Eduprotection Racket
Thursday August 18th 2005, 11:17 am

Sometimes one little fact speaks to the big picture. [I have no idea what that means. I merely offer it in the spirit of giving.]

For ex, let’s say you come home and find a tasty cigar butt in the ash tray next to the bed. Your side of the bed. And your wife, if you happen to have one, does not (and follow me closely here) smoke cigars. Nor does she collect cigar butts. This fact entitles you to say, “Heeeeeyyyyy. What’s all this?” [See how the word “all” suggests something bigger.]

Or, let’s say you make a tasty toasted cheese sammich and you leave it on the kitchen table while you go to the bathroom (or loo if you are in England) to sluice the phalanges. When you come back, a substantial slab of sammich has been excised from the mother board, and in its place is a denture-shaped lacunae. This suggests that someone with dentures took a bite out of your sammich.

Event —> Big Picture.

I believe I have made the point.

And now on to something especially squalid…

Well, every five years, most ed schools get a visit by the protection racket known as National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, pronounced enkate.

Education schools love NCATE. They almost always get “certified,” and then they advertise this fact on their websites.

“NCATE approved.” [Yes, but are they kosher? Okay, so they don’t cook a lamb in its mother’s milk—as prohibited in Leviticus—but they do immerse innocent and decent ed students in a sump of infected eduswill.]

The symbiosis is clear. Ed schools use NCATE certification to justify themselves. They have no data showing that their goofy pedagogies (sold to schools) do anything but harm kids and burden teachers. They have even less data showing that their graduates think clearly about instruction and can actually teach. So, NCATE provides the needed legitimacy.

Ed schools get visited in the spring. About the time lambs begin hopping about on hillocks hither and yon, as lambs are wont to do.

Ed schools begin to prepare for NCATE about 18 months earlier. Which completely shuts down other activities, such evaluating and improving their curricula. NCATE requires thick documents on every single program. In an average sized ed school, such as mine (yes, I own it, lock, stock, barrel), this means about 30 reports. Each report (easily 60 pages) must be accompanied by massive amounts of “products” or “evidences” that support the doc, such as student papers and “electronic portfolios.”

[Hold on a sec while I skip the light fandango…. Dang, there goes that ceiling again!]

Then the ed school administration has a whole nuther set of docs to write that describe the ed school as a whole—enrollment, passing rates, connections with schools, etc.

Indeed, a whole room (a big room) called “The Document Room,” is set aside for the “enkate visitors.”

You can imagine how carefully the NCATE “visitors” review all these docs. They have four days—filled with meetings with every program. It’s a huge scam. Filled to the bursting point with nudge nudge wink wink.

NCATE visitor. “So, I notice that you’ve reformed your reading program so that it’s aligned with scientific research. You teach ed students how to teach all five main reading skills…”

Literacy perfessers: “Oh, yes, indeed. Indeed. Indeed. Yes. Yes. All five, and then some.” (nudge nudge)

NCATE visitor. “No longer 100% whole language then?”

Literacy perfessers. “Oh, no. No. No. Indeed. Indeed. No.” (nudge nudge)

NCATE visitor. “Excellent. Then I shall write that in my report.” (wink wink)

In fact, the ONLY reform has been the literacy perfessers’ written DESCRIPTION of the literacy program, prepared for NCATE. They TEACH the same trash they have always taught. They have merely added five minutes to their courses in which they say things like,

“Some people (roll eyes) think there are five main reading skills: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension. They THINK these need to be taught in a systematic and explicit fashion. Yes, maybe sometimes that is good (wink wink), but there isn’t much research to support that claim. Okay, back to whole language. Let’s all celebrate diversity for awhile. Then a few choruses of Cumbaya. A short break for snacks–because your butts are not fat enough yet to qualify you as an eduhack–and then a bit on how to help students guess what words say.”

Here are samples of “Standards” that every program has to write about….

General Standards

Standard 1: Graduates are educational leaders who have the knowledge, skills, abilities to promote the success of all students by facilitating the articulation, formulation and dissemination of a school or district vision of learning supported by the school [They facilitate the articulation, formulation and dissemination…. And this means something? I bet if they worked on it, they could write something that means absolutely nothing. What if the school’s vision of learning is daffy? What if? Ha.]

Standard 2: Graduates are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability [This time they left out “skill” Oh no!! Now the standard does not make as much sense!] to support the success of all students by promoting and maintaining a positive school culture for learning, by promoting effective instructional programs, by applying best practices. [They promote effective instruction. They don’t PROVIDE it, but they promote it. And remember, those positive school cultures are real important. No one knows what that means, but meaning is not important. The point is salivation.]

Standard 3: Graduates are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by managing the organization, operations, and resources in a way that promotes a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.

3.1: Manages organizations
3.2: Manages operations
3.3: Manages resources

[It’s not enough to teach well, teachers also have to manage the organization. And they will do this….when? Besides, ed schools don’t even teach this. How could they? They have no idea what it means. In fact, it means absolutely nothing. Manage resources, forsooth! Means puts chalk in a drawer?]

Standard 4: Graduates are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by collaborating with families and community, responding to the diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.

4.1: Collaborates with family and community
4.2: Responds to diversity
4.3: Mobilizes community resources

[Mobilize community resources? “Okay, bring the truckload of wheat over here!” Yeah, teachers have all kinds of time to get businesses involved. And the principal’s job is, uh…..?]

Standard 5: Graduates are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by demonstrating respect for the rights of others and by acting responsibly in decision-making.
5.1: Demonstrates respect for the rights of others
5.2: Acts responsibly in decision-making

[“Hey, I notice that your cap is on sideways and your shorts are hanging off your ass. I respect your right to look like a total moron who does his shopping in a dumpster.”

“Your mini-top exposes your navel and the waistband of your mini-skirt is just above your pubic hair. I respect your right to look like a skanky slut.”]

Standard 6: Graduates are educational leaders who have the knowledge and ability to promote the success of all students by articulating, analyzing and describing, and communicating the larger political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.

6.1: Articulates the policies, laws, and regulations
6.2: Analyzes and describes various theories of change
6.3: Advocates with school community for policies and programs

[Oh, good! Now let’s have teachers be lawyers, too.]

Standard 7: Graduates are educational leaders who have the ability and experience to promote the success of all students by completing an internship that provides significant opportunities for synthesizing and applying knowledge and practicing the skills identified in Standards 1-6 through substantial, sustained, standards-based work in real settings, planned and guided cooperatively by the institution and school district personnel for graduate credit.

7.1: Candidates complete a full-time internship or equivalent
7.2: Candidates apply the knowledge and skills articulated in Standards 1-6 during their intern experience

[Have you noticed that NCATE does not expect graduates to be good teachers—just promoters. As a rhetorical device, it’s certainly well done. They use the same phrases over and over (promote the success of all students), and they cover a lot of territory. This makes it appear that the ed school curriculum turns out graduates who can do everything from planning instruction to being lawyers. This disguises the complete absence of the core—effective instruction and student achievement.]

But let’s not forget….

DIVERSITY STANDARDS

Standard 1: Teachers understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) they teach and can create classroom environments and learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter accessible, meaningful and culturally relevant for diverse learners.

[Again, no teaching is involved. The teacher merely makes concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines ACCESSIBLE. “Hey, and over here we have the structures of the discipline. And may I offer you a tool of inquiry? We call it a book.” What the does “structure of a discipline” even mean? It means NOTHING, Dear Reader. It’s not SUPPOSED to mean anything. It’s supposed to SOUND impressive and to produce hormonal secretions.]

Standard 2: Teachers understand how students’ cognitive, physical, socio-cultural, linguistic, emotional, and moral development influences learning and address these factors when making instructional decisions. [”understand how” What would that actually be? Oh, yeah, and teachers assess all these things in all students when they decide what to teach next.]

Standard 3: Teachers work collaboratively to develop linkages with parents/caretakers, school colleagues, community members and agencies that enhance the educational experiences and well being of diverse learners. [Pure drivel with a side order of bullsnacks.]

8.2 Communication to families and others about learning progress
8.3 Involvement of families in school program and activities
8.4 Consultations to support student learning and well-being

Standard 4: Teachers acknowledge and understand that diversity exists in society and utilize this diversity to strengthen the classroom environment to meet the needs of individual learners. [This one is easy. “Yup, by gum, I acknowledge the existence of diversity. I have no idea what the word refers to—size, shape, color, how much pant leg is dragging on the floor…”]

All candidates continually reflect upon and refine their practices as they relate to diverse learners. On the Performance Evaluation Scale for Interns, candidates must demonstrate their ability in the following areas:

5.4 Analysis of learning differences of individuals and groups
7.10 Adjustment of conditions to meet needs of diverse learners
10.2 Respect for others and other cultures
11.5 Use of formal and informal means of inquiry to improve practice

[Oh, yeah, let’s continually reflect… ]

Standard 6: Teachers of diverse students are reflective practitioners who are committed to educational equity.

[Does it get MORE meaningless than that?]

These vague standards are perfect. They enable the ed school to respond by writing bunk that is equally vague. The vague standards make stupidity, ignorance, philosophical twaddle, and duplicitous ambiguity perfectly acceptable.

“We teach all of our ed students to honor the diverse experiences of all children regardless of size, shape, color, or degree of disrespect they show to teachers. And let us say, Cumbaya.”

Imagine what would happen if one of the diversity standards said, “The teacher reduces that achievement gap (as indicated on pre- and post-tests) in math between minority and white students by at least 10% by the end of the year.” [Uh oh… Well, I can’t go for that. Noooo. No can do. I can’t go for that. Nooooo. No can do.”]

Professor Plum just came to a realization—assuming realizations are the kind of thing you can come to…

Ed schools must spend a thousand hours collectively responding to NCATE standards, but they spend not one minute thinking about what they teach ed students.

Ed schools’ NCATE documents are models of rationality. Everything in its place. Every standard is given its “evidences.” The mission statement (glib mind slop though it may be) shows up in every syllabus.

Yet, the actual teacher training curriculum is anti-rational. It has no connection with evaluation research and almost no connection with what schools need. In my county, for ex, almost every elementary school uses Reading Mastery (Direct Instruction). Yet, my ed school’s “literacy” program is 100% whole language. In fact, we just hired two more whole languagists. Meanwhile, one nearby country has told me twice–”You know, Marty, we wouldn’t hire your graduates if we had a choice. They have no idea how to teach reading.”

Yesterday (first day of classes) about a hundred teachers showed up for a Reading Recovery conference. Yes, we also teach Reading Recovery. No counties where our graduates get jobs USE Reading Recovery. The super. of the same county that said she wouldn’t hire our students told me, “We dropped Reading Recovery. We spent 500 thousand dollars a year and it didn’t do anything. Smarter to use a good curriculum in kindergarten and first grade.”

Does this matter to ed schools? Of course not. Reading Recovery faculty get to go to conferences. They are speeeshial. “May I introduce our Reading Recovery coordinator.” They get to put ON conferences, which they put on their resume, which will ensure that they get tenure and that they will continue pushing Reading Recovery (along with the implied rationalization that when kid’s in first grade can’t read, it means something is wrong with THEM, not the curriculum, and therefore the kids need an expensive “remediation”) until someone pushes them out the window.

But I digress.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must hie to Jim’s Pawn and Guns—right down there on Oleander across from Mel and Ned’s Tires, Live Bait, and Botox—to get one of these. I hear the hoofbeats of four horses—-one being a whiter shade of pale.